Cameroon have been scorching favourites to e book a quarter-final place even earlier than Comoros revealed they need to discipline an outfield participant in objective for Monday’s Africa Cup of Nations last-16 conflict.
Now hosts Cameroon should hold their focus within the uncommon circumstances, whereas event debutants Comoros absolutely want a footballing miracle.
That’s Monday’s second knockout sport, and it comes after a tussle between Guinea and Gambia in Bafoussam.
Guinea v Gambia (16:00 GMT)
Guinea can be with out Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita for this one, after he picked up a second yellow card of the event late on within the defeat to Zimbabwe final day trip.
The conflict at Kouekong Stadium is one between groups that completed second of their respective teams, and Gambia will hope their success holds after arguably driving their luck to achieve this level.
Tom Saintfiet’s Gambia aspect have outperformed their anticipated objectives (xG) complete, scoring thrice from an xG of two.0, whereas conceding simply as soon as regardless of an anticipated objectives towards (xGA) tally of 4.7. The three.7 hole between xGA and precise objectives conceded was the very best of all groups within the group stage.
Gambia confronted probably the most pictures of all groups (58) within the group stage, however remarkably they nonetheless saved two clear sheets, together with once they pulled off a shock 1-0 win over Tunisia.
Guinea underperformed of their taking pictures, scoring solely twice from an xG of 4.0 throughout their three group fixtures.
Gambia coach Saintfiet mentioned forward of the sport: “We’re not afraid as we’ve been along with the gamers for over three years, which means we’ve cohesion and nice group spirit.”
One to look at: Amadou Diawara (Guinea)
Guinea need to win their first knock-out match on the Africa Cup of Nations on the sixth try, having misplaced all 5 of their earlier such makes an attempt. Roma midfielder Diawara needs to be a key determine of their efforts to come back by this one, bringing his plentiful Serie A expertise to bear.
Cameroon v Comoros (19:00 GMT)
Contemplating Cameroon have been the highest scorers within the group stage with seven objectives, Comoros would have preferred their first-choice goalkeeper match for this one. Second selection would have been wonderful, third selection a salvageable scenario. However as an alternative they’re all out of keepers, with Salim Ben Boina injured and each Moyadh Ousseini and Ali Ahamada testing optimistic for COVID-19.
The minnows will hope their chosen emergency keeper proves a revelation at Stade d’Olembe, however the prospects for Comoros seem bleak, regardless of them reaching the knockout levels with a shock 3-2 win over Ghana.
This would be the first Africa Cup of Nations encounter between Cameroon and Comoros, who on Saturday reported a complete of 12 COVID circumstances of their camp.
Cameroon have reached no less than the quarter-finals in eight of their final 10 Africa Cup of Nations appearances, though they’ve failed to take action in two of the earlier three editions (group stage in 2015 and last-16 in 2019).
Little question licking his lips on the prospect of dealing with Comoros can be Cameroon captain Vincent Aboubakar, prime scorer within the event with 5 objectives within the group stage. The final gamers to rating greater than 5 objectives in a single version of the Africa Cup of Nations have been Egypt’s Hossam Hassan and South Africa’s Benni McCarthy (each 7) in 1998.
One to look at: The rookie goalkeeper
Whoever will get the gloves faces a frightening problem. Cameroon tried 35 pictures within the group stage, greater than every other aspect, and in addition tried 63 crosses (solely Senegal and Egypt had extra). Comoros shipped 5 objectives in three video games once they had a recognised goalkeeper, shedding two of their three Group B video games. They need to be ripe for being picked off by the house group in Yaounde.